Improvement in lightning-rods



M. D. PHELPS.

Lightning-Rod.

=Patentd Feb. 16,1875.

UNITED STATEs PATENT OEETcEc MYRON D. PHELPS, OF BRISTOLVILLE, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT IN LIGHTNING-RODS.

Specication forming part of Letters Patent No. 159,961, dated February 16, 1875; application led April 4, 1874.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, MYEON D. II-IELPs, of Bristolville, in the county of Trumbull and in the State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Lightning-Rods; and do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being' lud to the accompanying drawings and to the letters of reference marked thereon, making a part of this specitication.

My present invention consists in an iinprovement upon the lightning-rod patented to me December 19, 1871, No. 122,055, and re lates to the construction and combination of parts, as hereinafter set forth.

In order to enable others skilled in the art to which my invention appertains to make and use the same, I will now proceed to describe its construction and operation, referring to the annexed drawing, in which- Figure 1 is a side view of a part of my lightningrod; and FiO. 2 is a crosssection oi' the same.

In the construction of my lightning-rod I use one or more copper wires or strips, which may be twisted together or not, as desired, to form a center, a. rIhree or more of these centers are then covered independently with a suitable number of wires or strips, b b, of any desired metal, to form a perfect covering. The

several cables thus made are then twisted together in the same man ner as of the irst twist, thus forming a single cable with several copper centers. Having the wires or strips all twisted in the same direction prevents them from crossing or becoming cross banded.

Wires d d. are wound on the outside of the cable thus made as Wrappers, giving additional strength to the lightning-rod and iill in the spaces between the twisted clusters a b. The ends of all the wires or strips are braced or welded or otherwise united, whereby a continuous rod is obtained.

By using the several copper centers I greatly increase the conducting surface and unite a greater amount of copper and wire surface, thus making the combination of the rod hmore perfect and powerful as a conductor.

The rod, being made of smaller wires or strips, and a greater number employed, renders the rod more liexible, so that a very large rod may be made and used continuously, thus avoidingjoints and greatly increasing the surface and natural conducting power.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The combination of three or more clusters of Wires, each cluster composed of a copper center, a, covered with wires b b, and the clusters thus formed twisted together, and the wires d d twisted around between the clusters on the exterior, all substantially as set forth.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing I have hereunto set my hand this 16th day of March, 1874.

MYRON D. PHELPS.

Vitnesses W. A. BIROHARD, l?. J. FREEMAN. 

